Challenge #735 Voting CLOSED

This week’s theme: Neon

After 2 days of voting, a winner is declared: The voting will close on Wednesday.
The winner picks the theme for next week.

[ If the winner doesn’t supply a theme before Thursday 22:30 GMT, the organizer will select the theme. In this case, the winner’s theme will be used the next time we are lacking a theme on Thursday 22:30 GMT. :slight_smile: ]

Having selected the theme, the winner will not be eligible to enter that week. They may however still submit an image, but it won’t be included in the voting.

Pure Entries

  • Fulip
    Tube Amp
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492059&stc=1&thumb=1
  • purbosky
    Neon Edges
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492120&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Devil_Dog
    Neon Jam
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492165&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Evilos
    Neon Fox in the Crystal Forest
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492166&stc=1&thumb=1
  • fcharr
    Condescending Gas
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492178&stc=1&thumb=1
  • MDO2010
    A Penguin and a Monkey Walk Into a Bar…
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492190&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Photox
    Highway 61
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492218&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Anthony JK
    Neon and one tree
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492244&stc=1&thumb=1
  • david.speer
    Dock 42
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492279&stc=1&thumb=1
  • 3dnotguru
    Neon tetra
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492302&stc=1&thumb=1
  • texasfunk101
    Fusion Jazz
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492332&stc=1&thumb=1
  • benla
    Neon Odyssey
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492353&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Gordi
    My Neon Colored Neon
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492357&stc=1&thumb=1
  • shawn.kearney
    neon
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492371&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Sentinelle

http://nsm07.casimages.com/img/2017/07/24//17072409401715326815165209.jpg

  • appie.123
    Neon mushroom
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492374&stc=1&thumb=1
  • caz747
    Snake Oil.
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492404&stc=1&thumb=1
  • RayVelcoro
    Coming Soon
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492420&stc=1&thumb=1
  • Arethyu
    Workshop
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492446&stc=1&thumb=1
  • fdo
    neonsign
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492469&stc=1&thumb=1
  • str11
    Blue Swallow
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492473&stc=1&thumb=1

Open Entries

  • Roken
    neongod
    [Open owing to plugins and Gimp for the text and recompression.]
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492208&stc=1&thumb=1

Non-competing Entries

  • Helge
    The Water Nixie
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492251&stc=1&thumb=1
  • danchristie25
    Imperfection is the digital perfection
    https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492288&stc=1&thumb=1
  • RobertT
    BLAZE
    http://www.artofinterpretation.com/images4/wc735-Blaze-byrjt2017.jpg

Wonderful work, everyone!

There’s so much to be admired here.

Just some observations I had while viewing each of these works:

Fulip: I admire the clean work of the lines, the colors, reflections, and the glow achieved here. There’s a bit of atmospheric smoke as well, which does well to support the glowing of the light.

purbosky: Great design, something right out of an epic fantasy game or movie. The glowing symbols and edges make this even more interesting and mystical to behold.

Devil_Dog: Just the thought of “neon jam” is interesting and probably not entirely removed from scientific possibility. I imagine we could be eating some bioluminescent-like jam-like food in the future =)

Evilos: Excellent idea, and something quite future-mythical about this concept. The random colors in the background make this even more visually compelling to me.

fcharr: The juxtaposition of the jar and the piano without legs makes this “stand out” (pun intended) in a thought-provoking way. At first I thought “Classical Gas” (a song). I thoguth the procedural texture in the background was interesting as well.

MDO2010: This captures a classic sight and sense of neon, and it’s a nice incorporation of Suzanne.

Photox: Awesome render and mood. I voted for this.

Anthony JK: Very interesting scene, one that suggests a story (the “last tree”), the tree fenced off as it is, a touch of mist.

david.speer: There’s a mystery about this image, most centrally involving the silhouette inside the room, and further supported by the vacancy surrounding this location. Nice use of Blender’s toon lines as well!

3dnotguru: The details there are really well done, and, most importantly, with respect to the location, there is a clear sense this is an underwater scene. I also like how the bolder colors of the fish help to differentiate them from the background.

texasfunk101: This is a classic and fairly real depiction of a neon sign. I like the colors you selected. With just a little imagination, one could easily hear some piano jazz and maybe the opening lyrics of a singer “off camera.”

benla: I admire the experimental visual approach to this image, the realistic flow of the waves, which contribute to a strong sense of motion here, along with the high-contrast / neon colorations.

Gordi: I enjoyed the visual pun (a “neon Neon”) as well as the overall likeness you achieved in such short time with a real Neon vehicle.

shawn.kearney: Another classic portrayal of a real-life object exhibiting neon colors. The refraction here really helps this to be a convincing depiction of a “lava lamp.”

Sentinelle: Great idea and anthropomorphic character development here! I like the little touch of the “bright eyes” in the background watching on as the two lightbulbs confront each other. To me, it could be either “incandescent vs. CFL” (old vs. new) or “LED vs. CFL” (new vs. old).

appie.123: The transition (top to bottom) from dark to light, and the luminosity you achieved with the mushrooms is nice. The color choices here also visually aid the piece and draw the viewer’s eyes to the primary subject shown here.

caz747: This is one of those images where an entire story can unfold in the viewer’s mind, and that is owed to the thought you put into this. The signs literally help the viewer to be “drawn into” this piece, and the circus tent, along with the title, give rise to all sorts of interesting thoughts.

RayVelcoro: This looks fairly photorealistic, as if you were standing outside the Blender Developer headquarters and taking a photo of their announcement of the next release version. Very nice!

Arethyu: There’s an immense amount of appreciable detail in this piece, and, everything - from the textures to the lighting (within and from the flourescent fixture above) to the placement of the tools - makes this rather real.

fdo: Often a literal and direct depiction of the Weekend Challenge topic can be difficult to pull off, but you did it very well here within a constrained but very effective palette. The brick texture is nicely varied as well.

str11: Wonderful attention to detail here, especially with the varied regular and neon signage. The sunset sky helps to support this as a likely location to be sought out at this time. I also admire the little extras, such as the plants along the side of the building and the textural variations in the pavement.

Roken: A very thought-provoking literal interpretation of “The Sound of Silence” lyrics. If that’s a procedural sky, it’s very well done. That field must have taken a while to render!

Helge: As always, there is charm and wit and imagination in your work. An excellent “Helge version” of the Nixie Tube.

danchristie25: A very effective use of minimalism here. The eventual boldness of the red building up to that glowing motto is really attention-getting. The more subtle aspects of the textural variations and asymmetrical interruption of the lower-right horiztonal object help reinforce the idea powering the motto.

Thanks to all our participants for another great Weekend Challenge!

RobertT

Blaze is a sci-fi dream come true. A rebel flyer zipping through a borg cathedral. I like the colors used, the yellow contrasting the purple.

My non sequitur entry came from me remembering William Dafoe’s role in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He plays Pablo Escobar: Tells his piano teacher to go get rid of his condescending gas (condescending air), as he politely shakes his hand. As an afterthought: The green and orange mirror the colors of the Mexican flag.

Well that was hard to choose one to vote for, so many great entries.

Thanks, RobertT, for the comments, they’re very much appreciated.

Thanks RobertT.

In case anyone was wondering, the car was about 75% “booleaned out” with a black and white drawing of a Dodge Neon in the background. It resulted in a lot of smoothness issues and a higher poly count than it really should have, but I think it turned out OK taking into account the time frame.

This week was a great learning experience and hopefully I will remember not to make the same mistakes again. :slight_smile:

Hi RobertT. I was going for the far too literal interpretation, and I may spend time (already started) on going for it more.

The grass won’t be in the end render, but you’ll be surprised to know that the final render was about 15 minutes.

EDIT: I should qualify, I could literally get away with 100 samples on the denoise build.

RobertT Thanks for the comment. I really do think we could be eating neon jam very soon.

Hey Moderators, just an fyi: I am able to vote For my fav render, while also being a contender in the poll (In my dreams, there are some amazing renders). Last time I was in a challenge I couldn’t vote, I don’t know if that has changed…

This is a fun forum. Just don’t vote for yourself. :ba:

:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p

Cool With me.

@ RobertT
Love the positive comments.
Thank you.

@ str11
A friend of mine from CA swears that this motel looks just like one down the street.

Great work everyone!

@ RobertT
Thanks for detailed analysis of all these works.Actually it’s my first entry)

@RobertT, Thank you for the write-up, cheers!

Great to see so many entries, I think the new weekly feature row updates are a great idea.

@ RobertT
Thanks for detailed analysis of all work.Actually it’s my first entry)

I second that!

Thanks a lot! I like tubes and when I noticed that the fairy tale “Die Wassernixe” is called “The Water Nixie” in English, I knew what to do. (Btw. my little water nixie would never try to catch children.)

Btw.2: It is really nice that you took the time to go through so many entries in such a friendly way. :slight_smile:
That must have taken you some time - no weekend in 2017 saw more entries (so far).

@appie: With all the entry/voting-confusion I almost forgot that I wanted to respond to this.

Did you already find the time to continue working on this one?
Maybe lowering the overall lighting and adding some depth of field effect would make the mushrooms stand out even more?

Thanks for the advice. I thought the same about the DOF, working on that now.
Don’t you think that lowering the overall lighting will make my image to dark?
When I’m finished I’ll post the render.

Too dark? Well, it depends (as always). Darkness can be a great help - just look at the Alien 1-x movies. :wink:
Let’s say the forest was lit by a full moon, there would probably be some brighter areas and many dark shadows. The viewer would know it was night time, but the image still wouldn’t be all black. (Google was kind enough to provide some reference images.) And into that dark night your mushrooms could bring some mysterious colorful light (they already do). Like the reflections in the water or that nice area right below the bottom right group of mushrooms (stones and moss). <= Which I think are the most beautiful and interesting parts of the current image.


Be that as it may, I am looking forward to whatever you come up with.

“Darkness warshed over the dude. Darker’n a black steer’s tookus on a moonless prairie night. There was no bottom.” – The Stranger, The Big Lebowski.

And… the winner of Weekend Challenge 735 with 15% of the votes is… Evilos!
As we have a tie between entries (Evilos, Photox, str11), the earliest submitted entry wins.

Here’s to all the great participators…

Fulip : 0 : 0%
purbosky : 2 : 5%
Devil_Dog : 1 : 2.5%
Evilos : 6 : 15%
fcharr : 0 : 0%
MDO2010 : 1 : 2.5%
Photox : 6 : 15%
Anthony JK : 2 : 5%
david.speer : 0 : 0%
3dnotguru : 4 : 10%
texasfunk101 : 1 : 2.5%
benla : 4 : 10%
Gordi : 0 : 0%
shawn.kearney : 0 : 0%
Sentinelle : 1 : 2.5%
appie.123 : 1 : 2.5%
caz747 : 1 : 2.5%
RayVelcoro : 1 : 2.5%
Arethyu : 2 : 5%
fdo : 0 : 0%
str11 : 6 : 15%
Roken : 1 : 2.5%

https://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=492166&stc=1&thumb=1
Neon Fox in the Crystal Forest

Congratulatons!